AXIGEN – An Innovative Messaging Solution for Enterprises and Service Providers of All Sizes

The number of messages exchanged between users continues to grow quickly. It is projected to increase from about 156 messages/day per user in 2008 to about 233 messages/day per user in 2012. Such a quick increase in volume over the next few years will influence many companies to take a critical look at their solutions, even if they may be currently satisfied with their messaging systems.

However, it’s not just the sheer volume of messages that makes organizations be selective about their messaging environments. Email is used to exchange sensitive information, and companies need to ensure that messages always get delivered safely and to the right party.
 

1.0 Evolving Market Needs

The strategic importance of email systems, combined with the growing volume of messages, presents a number of challenges for organizations. Today, to efficiently manage its email communications, a typical organization will need the following capabilities:

• Efficient Message Processing – to make sure that all messages reach their recipients with no delay and no lost messages.   


• Security Capabilities – anti-spam/anti-virus protection (native or from third parties), as well as message encryption to protect sensitive documents. 


• Collaboration Features - sharing of calendaring items, user contacts, wireless email, and more.


• Streamlined Administration - centralized administration of all accounts, including management of storage space, anti-spam/virus applications, and other features.


• Access from Anywhere - integrated support for Web and wireless access.  


• Competitive Pricing – the solution needs to be affordable for companies of all sizes, or should provide different versions to make it affordable for smaller organizations. Small to mid-size companies represent over 60% of all email users of in-house solutions, however their needs are often ignored by many messaging vendors. Even though smaller companies normally have more limited budgets, they have the same needs for many advanced features as larger organizations.

Figure 1: Messaging and Collaboration Platforms
 – IB Distribution by Business Size, 2007

This white paper introduces AXIGEN, an innovative messaging solution that has been deployed and tested by over 6 million users worldwide. Recently introduced in North America, AXIGEN a Linux-based system built on a carrier-class technology that can be deployed on a variety of platforms. 

2.0 Overview of AXIGEN

In business since 2001, Gecad Technologies SA is based in Romania. It sells its solutions through over 150 distributors, resellers, and OEM partners worldwide.  Gecad’s current flagship solution, AXIGEN Mail Server, was developed by a team of seasoned professionals, with 15 years of experience in messaging and IT security.

The Axigen Mail Server offers high-end features for large scale implementations by providing speed, security, reliability and a failsafe storage system helping system administrators avoid any interruption of service or loss of data.

AXIGEN is targeted at both enterprise customers as well as Service Providers, enabling them to deploy it as a messaging solution for their customers, or as a part of a larger suite of services. 

Through its collaborative messaging functionality, AXIGEN is very effective for both large organizations and smaller companies that need messaging features that are typically heavy email messaging users.

Some of AXIGEN’s unique architecture that separates its technology from competitors includes the following:

• AXIGEN UltraStorage – all messages are stored in a special directory structure to enable faster mail flow through the system, as well as to reduce storage space needed. 


• AXIGEN SmartProcessing – offers a multi-threaded engine with parallel processing for more efficient management of messages based on the unique requirements of each company. 


• AXIGEN GrowSecure – a customizable set of security features.  Messages can be filtered at the server, domain, or user level via a variety of filters, including Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam (any third party solution), Anti-Spoofing, Domain Keys, and custom SIEVE scripts. 

AXIGEN, today, is available in four different packages:

• Service Provider Edition – enables service providers to deploy it as a stand-alone, multi-tier, clustered messaging solution, or as part of a larger suite of services.


• Enterprise Edition – advanced collaborative groupware and information sharing capabilities for large enterprises.


• Business Edition – advanced capabilities (including personal organizer, mobile web access, etc) for small and mid-size companies.


• Office Edition – richly featured solution for SOHOs and SMBs which includes groupware functionality and support at no charge.

3.0 Key Features

All AXIGEN editions share a common set of features. The key capabilities include the following:
 

• Administration – can be performed locally or remotely via a secure connection.  Many administrative tasks can be automated for easier day-to-day account management. Administrators can create rules to be enforced at the group or account level. A delegated administration feature enables administrators to share account management responsibility with other users.


• Power features – a complete set of collaboration features which simplify internal communication by allowing sharing of information, such as email folders, contacts, appointments, tasks, and more, as well as clustering support which allows separation of services and large scale deployments with high availability.


• Message Management – the SmartProcessing feature enables quick message processing, queue control and efficient message delivery based on automatic rules optimized for each organization. 


• Reporting – offers detailed statistics on the server usage with charts and graphs for easier comprehension.


• Message Storage – the UltraStorage capabilities reduce the space necessary to store messages, and enable administrators to easily add more storage as needed. It comes with an account overload feature, as well as a corrupted data recovery capability.


• Security Options – the GrowSecure capability offers native connectors for popular Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam applications, as well as interfaces for many other third party and custom filters, including combined filters that can be applied at the server, domain, or user levels. It comes with the traditional white/black list features, enables a reverse DNS lookup, sender validation, and other popular security features. Outgoing messages can be encrypted based on established corporate policies.     


• User Options – users have a large number of convenience and productivity features to select from. The most popular include: personal organizer, address book, remote POP connections, creation of individual rules and filters, personal blacklists, 20 languages and several skins to choose from for the user interface, customized out-of-office message creation, personalized signatures, over quota notifications, and temporary e-mail address generation to avoid spam.


• Multiple Access Options – users are able to access their messages from the office, through their email client of choice, with a specific connector for Outlook, remotely via a WebMail interface, or via wireless devices (such as mobile phones, smart phones, PDAs, etc).

4.0 How and Why AXIGEN Is a Beter Fit for Changing Market Needs

AXIGEN offers a powerful, carrier-grade solution that can be easily managed by companies of all sizes, including smaller organizations. With a full set of advanced features and multiple customization options, its administration is simple and straightforward, allowing companies to quickly modify the solution to fit their needs using a minimum amount of human resources.

In a business environment where an increasing number of companies employ Internet based channels to promote global models, AXIGEN enables IT administrators at headquarters to delegate administration tasks and homogenously implement security policies worldwide. Additionally, AXIGEN supports companies’ efforts to adapt their range of services to different segments of customers with specific requirements, administering user categories through a powerful account class engine with multi-layered inheritance and exception management.

To safeguard strategic data and boost worker productivity, AXIGEN offers a number of powerful security features through its 12-layer security policies system which includes anti-virus/anti-spam, flow control, blacklisting, DNS checks, sender and message integrity validation, anti-impersonation, virtual routing and much more. AXIGEN is flexible enough to work with popular commercial filters, as well as home-grown solutions. 

AXIGEN is also very versatile. It can run on a variety of popular platforms, and allows users to access messages from anywhere. With a constantly growing number of satellite workers, it is an important option for companies who want to maintain centralized management of account and data storage, allowing users to access their messages from the office or remotely via wireless devices. 

In addition to the on-premises editions, AXIGEN is also offered to service providers as a stand-alone messaging solution, or as part of a larger messaging and Web security suite customized by each service provider for its customers. 

AXIGEN is an innovative messaging solution that is easy to deploy and manage, offering important premium features for organizations of all sizes at an affordable cost. With a variety of customization and storage features, it can easily grow and expand, quickly accommodating to changing customer needs.


(A white paper originally published by the The Radicati Group, Inc: www.radicati.com)